HANCOCK COUNTY — Businesses and developers considering a project in Hancock County have no shortage of potential sites as another 80 acres of land along Interstate 70 have been designated “shovel-ready.”
Located just west of University Loft near the Interstate 70/Mt. Comfort interchange, the rectangular parcel fronting CR 300N became the fourth of the county’s shovel-ready parcels Friday at a designation ceremony at the Buck Creek Township Fire Department.
“We’re trying to be aggressive with everything we can do to make our county marketable,” said Skip Kuker, executive director of the Hancock Economic Development Council. “We’ve had a lot of activity lately, and this puts just one more thing in our arsenal.”
In order to be declared shovel-ready, the land must have clear title and survey; local government-level support for development; an established price; an environmental assessment; and an audit to define any protected wetlands.
A shovel-ready designation makes parcels and developable sites all that more attractive to businesses testing the waters in Hancock County because selecting a shovel-ready site translates into getting a project out of the ground and operational in the least amount of time, officials say.
With the most recent designation, the county now has about 560 acres primed for development.
“It’s good, and it’s pretty exciting,” said Aaron Greenwalt of Greenfield’s Greenwalt Development Group, which assisted with the effort to get the parcel designated.
The property is zoned as an industrial business park and will be marketed to small and mid-sized light manufacturing and distribution firms, said Kelly Williams of RE/MAX Ability Plus Commercial Division of Indianapolis, which is marketing the property.
Developments between five and 10 acres will be the most likely enterprises sought at the property.
“We’ll be filling that small niche between uses like University Loft and the Honda manufacturing plant in Greensburg,” Williams said.
The project was privately developed with no taxpayer dollars used to obtain the designation, Kuker said.
Geoff Schomacker, director of project development and community affairs for Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs, said the individual and private efforts that brought the project to its current state were commendable.
“One of the most beautiful things we get to see is local folks working together to get things done,” Schomacker said. “We’re bragging on a national level about these kinds of efforts.”